Peti-els of the Kermadec Group. 425 



either an egg or a chick, though many eggs were freshly laid. 

 At the end of May all the eggs were hatched and many 

 big downy young were observed. At the beginning of 

 August almost all the young birds had flown. By the middle 

 of November there were no signs of these birds about Meyer 

 Island Four months would here seem to elapse between 

 the date of laying and the flight of the youngs and we were 

 unable to make a satisfactory explanation of this at that 

 time. 



To revert now to my previous paragraph^ I would explain 

 that in addition to this erratic breeding performance on the 

 part of these Petrels, a great variation in the coloration 

 of the birds has been observed. The variation was first 

 mentioned by John Macgillivray, and from a note in the 

 ' Zoologist/ I860, p. 7134, it is gleaned that he was inclined 

 to the view that the diff'erence in coloration was due to 

 immaturity, though all the birds were breeding. Salvin 

 discussed this variation when he obtained examples of 

 CEstrelata arminjoniana from South Trinidad Island, Atlantic 

 Ocean, and at first considered the differences s^aecific, though 

 he afterwards retracted that view. 



From Macgillivray^s time until 1887 no one appears to 

 have visited Sunday Island save Dr. Graeffe, who in the 

 interests of the GodefiJ'roy Museum, made collections there. 

 Little interest, however, seems to have been evinced by him 

 in these birds. 



In 1887 the Group was annexed to New Zealand„and the 

 Government vessel sent there, carried Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, 

 of the Auckland Museum. Though more interested in 

 Botany, he made numerous notes on the bird-life of the 

 group, and obtained the assistance of the settlers on the 

 island in furthering his investigations into the Petrels 

 there. The extraordinary tales which accompanied the 

 receipt of specimens by BuUer and Hutton, through Cheese- 

 man's intervention, produced some remarkable results. It 

 is necessary to review these results, as it was due to the 

 confliction of the very diverse accounts that an attempt was 

 made to produce reconciliation. 



